Silent hill: Death of the nightmares
by Kagomas
Summary: Kevin is bothered by the visions he has which he cannot make sense of. But then something happens, something...unexpected... Chapter 4 complete. Rated M for graphic imagry.
1. Chapter 1

-1 **Silent Hill: Dreams of death**

Disclaimer: I don't own silent hill or any of it's products/affiliations.

I do own this story though.

**Chapter 1**

A flash. Trees being blown in the wind. A flash. A chair, vacant and yearning of the owner. A flash. A knife, lying on the ground, stained with deep red blood. Deserted by the user, and left beside a trail of the same blood that lead to a body. The brown shoes had small dots of the wearers blood on them. The skirt was stained almost as much as the shirt, striped in a maroon coating. The chest had a stab wound. And the face…

Kevin Stoker jerked awake from his nightmare. His face was wet from sweat and tears. His breathing was heavy and desperate. He reached over for his bedside lamp and heard it click as the room lit up to the dim glow. His room was just as he left it, to his relief. He had a problem of sleepwalking and often would bump into a few bits of furniture or move objects around, apparently for no reason.

He got up and went to the bathroom that was opposite the end of his bed. He clicked the light on that shone outwards from the top of the mirror. He turned on the tap and washed his face of the other fluids that covered it. He finished up and looked at himself in the mirror. His face looked white and vacant of expression which contrasted his dark brown hair. His grass green eyes were bloodshot and tired, obviously from the strain of the bright light. He was taller than most of the people he knew, about 6'3", which was often the humorous topic of his friends. They said that he should take up basket ball instead of working at his office job which seemed to dominate most of his time. This suggestion had made him ponder on whether his life was really as full as it could be, but then he realised that it would never be, not since what had happened 3 years ago.

His girlfriend and soon-to-be bride had been murdered 2 weeks before their wedding day. The culprit was never found and due to the lack of evidence that anyone who was known by the victim had committed the crime, the case was dismissed. This had shaken Kevin severely and he had had a difficult time coming to terms with what happened. Most people thought that he'd need time off from work to work through what he was feeling, but instead he engrossed himself in the paperwork, taking on extra assignments and staying later than office hours would allow. Some would have speculated that he wasn't very concerned with what had happened if he was able to stay at work for so long, but in fact this was very far from the truth. Kevin wasn't not concerned, he was so upset that he didn't want to return home, simply because he dreaded arriving there and knowing that Jade wouldn't be there. She wouldn't be there to ask him how his day was. She wouldn't be there to comfort him about his problems. She wouldn't be there to sit on the sofa with him and hug as they watched some trivial nonsense on the TV. He missed all the little delights she added to his life and it only made it worse when he had to come home and miss them all the more.

He finished his self-reflection and took a few deep breaths to calm his sparking nerves. After a while he felt ok to go back to his bed. As he opened the door and clicked the light off, his nerves went into their lightning bolt state again as he saw something that he wondered how the hell he had missed it. On the wall, directly above where his head would have been in the bed, was an inscription in blood. The blood was fresh. It glistened in the light of the bedside lamp. And it bore five very distinctive and piercing words. They read,

"Silent Hill is waiting.

Jade."

The old Volkswagen Golf spluttered and choked slightly as the needle on the fuel meter began to trip over the E for empty sign. Kevin had been going for at least 3 hours on the most direct route he could find. He had asked at every travel agency and every station that had some sort of mainland connection, "Where can I find Silent hill?!" At first nothing turned up and all he got in response was a puzzled look or the odd, "Are you sure that's even a real place?" If he was honest with himself, he wasn't sure if this "Silent hill" was real himself.

Then, just as he was reaching the end of his tether, he struck gold. He had been searching mainly around Ohio's south-eastern counties where he lived, but in a feeling of last-hope luck, he decided to drive a long way into West Virginia and see if anything came to fruition. It did. He stopped off at a gas station for a refill and for something to eat. He brought a packet of Doritos to the counter and said "Pump 4 please". The clerk punched up the numbers for the total and Kevin handed over the cash in a no-nonsense way that he always did when buying from out of town. He was just about to turn and walk away when he thought about trying one last time. He was weary from his continuous car journeys and regular stops to search every source of information that he could get his ears to. But he still had the drive to keep going on his hunt for the answers to the blood on his walls.

"Pardon me for asking, but would you happened to know where I can find a place called "Silent Hill"?"

The clerk looked at him for a second, her eyes seemed to quiver at the mention of the name. Slowly she leaned over, looked left and right to make sure nobody was listening into their conversation, even though it was clearly just them in the Mart. She said, in a very soft tone, "You don't want to go there. Strange things happen in that town."

"Right now, I don't really care if it's not at the top of the holiday resort lists, I just need to get there, and soon."

"You think I'm not serious?!" Said the woman with a suddenly loud and alarming voice. "Don't go there! You're going to regret every second you spend in that place! I mean it!"

Kevin was taken aback by the unexpected outburst from the woman, but he soon remembered why he was talking to her and said with a slightly more meaningful voice, "Hey, I said I need to get there now! If you know where it is then I'm going to have to get you to tell me! I've been travelling all over the state trying to find this god-forsaken place and the first chance I get you tell me not to go there? To hell with that, I'm going there whatever it takes! Now will you please tell me!" He ended up nearly shouting the last sentence because of his frustration.

The woman looked at Kevin like he was slightly deranged, then sighed and said, "Ok fine, you take the route around the mountain side that's at the second right from here. When you hit the thick forest you just have to look out for the signs that point you in the right direction. Be careful though, some of those signs are really old. They mightn't have anything left on them."

"It's ok, I'm good at finding my own way"

He turned to go away when she reached over and grabbed his arm. He turned back to see what she wanted.

"Take care. There's a lot of weird things in that town. You'll want to leave very soon."

He turned around and looked into her eyes with all the meaning that he knew there was in this journey of his.

"I'm not leaving until I find what I'm looking for."

She nodded to agree but still looked despairing as he whisked out of the mart and slid back into his car. He started up the engine and chugged out of the gas station.

He followed the directions given to him to the dot until the point at which he had to go by the signs started. The first one was easy enough to recognise, it was part of a series of other signs that directed drivers to other places. One of which was Ashfield. He turned right and sped on, but not too fast seeing as it was getting dark. After about 15 minutes the next sign appeared, and Kevin could see why the clerk had told him about the visibility of the signposts. He could only see S--en- -ill printed. The rest of it had been practically scraped off of the metal. He continued to meander down the small country road until he came to one last sign. This one didn't even have complete letters, and it actually looked like…there was something smeared across it. In the weak light Kevin couldn't quite make out what it was on the sign that had been spread across the front. He drove a little closer and suddenly realised…blood. Something that was bleeding had been physically smeared across the sign he was looking at. This scared him deeply, and he felt the cold sweat coming back again. He decided to keep driving on, and quickly. He took the left turn indicated, and then fell asleep. He had no idea what had happened, and was still partially awake so he could see images of the road as well as the images that his dream was bringing to him.

A flash. Trees being blown in the wind. His car was still rolling along the road, approaching a hill. A flash. A chair, vacant and yearning of the owner. The car went down the hill and lost control, veering off to the right into the trees. A flash. A knife, lying on the ground, stained with deep red blood. The front of the car crashed into the body of an oak. Kevin's head hit the dashboard. He thought no more and fell into a complete sleep.

Wind. Movement. Trees rustling. He opened his eyes and saw the wrecked remains of his left window. He lifted his head and saw the damage done to the front. One of the wheels had come off and both front lights were smashed out. There was a slight hissing sound emitting from the engine. He slowly unbuckled his seatbelt and forced the door open which had had it's locking mechanism bent out of shape. He stepped out and suddenly noticed something was definitely different about the surroundings. For one it was lighter that it had been before he had been knocked out so he could only assume he had been unconscious until the next day, but that wasn't the most obvious factor. The area which he had crashed into was now covered in a thick fog. And not just any fog. This fog swept the ground and was flying between the trees. It covered everything. Kevin couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of himself. The silence that had fallen over the forest was eerie, almost frightening. Kevin decided it was no use going back to the town he had just come from so he decided to carry on to Silent Hill.

As he walked he tried to remember which way he had being going before the crash, and once he found his bearings it was easy to get back on route. Minutes passed. The gentle thudding of his leather shoes was all that could be heard as he followed the road. Occasionally there was a rustle from the leaves in the trees and the blowing of a light breeze through them, but other than that total silence dominated the misty trail.

After what seemed to be hours he finally reached what seemed to be an indication of where he was heading. A road that twisted around a steep hill could just be seen from through the trees. He picked up his pace and rounded the corner. He stopped as he saw a sign up ahead. The card on it was torn in places and the letters had been worn out a bit, but it still clearly read what it intended:

Welcome to Silent Hill

Population - 262

He stood for a moment, slightly relieved and also irresolute about seeing his destination reached.

He only started to stir when he realised there was something standing in front of the sign.


	2. Chapter 2

-1**Chapter 2**

"Hello?"

Kevin took a few steps through the fog to try and get a clear view of whoever was standing in front of the sign. Whoever it was, they seemed to be hard of hearing or occupied with something else because they didn't turn around even when Kevin almost shouted "Hello" at them. As Kevin kept walking he suddenly realised that the person didn't have any clothes on, and that they had had very red skin, as if the skin had been burnt in a raging fire.

"Hey! Are you ok?!" Kevin said thinking that the person was hurt. Only he now realised that there was something wrong with the person. Something very wrong.

As the person, no, this "thing", turned to face Kevin, he realise now that the reason this creature hadn't replied to his calls was that it had no mouth. It's face was scarred, mutilated and destroyed to such extremes that Kevin had to force himself to not vomit. There were parts of its skin missing with bones and cartilage sticking through. It's eyes were bleeding as if they had been gouged out with a knife. Were there should have been a nose there was only a slit in the middle of the face which looked more like an axe wound than anything else. It's body was like the face, ruined and broken. It's arms were limp and lifeless, hanging like damp cloths off the shoulders. But the one thing that was truly sickening about the creature was it's legs. The legs were merely stumps of bone and flesh, flattened out from being worn down.

Kevin was terrified by what stood in front of him and could feel beads of cold sweat forming on his brow. His brain was telling his legs to run, but his legs were scared as well. The creature was now slowly making its way towards him, limping on it's half-legs. Kevin could hear it gasping and wheezing through the slit in its face. As it got closer and closer with each limp, Kevin lost control of his breath which now caught in his throat.

Suddenly, the creature took a leap towards Kevin and head butted him in the chest with it's fleshy forehead. Kevin landed with a thump on the concrete. The creature had thrown him a fair distance considering how slow it was. Kevin now knew that it was dangerous. He wanted to run back to his car, but he knew he had to get into Silent hill somehow.

Gathering his courage and standing up as tall as he dared, he ran at the half-legged creature and shoulder-butted it to the ground. Once on it's back the creature stared to spasm uncontrollably, as if in intense pain. Kevin knew that the half-leg would get up again if he didn't do something. He suddenly remembered he had a Swiss army knife attached to his belt that he always carried with him just in case. He never thought "just in case" would be if a monster decided to attack him one day, but that was irrelevant at this moment in time. He got the knife out and walked over to the head of the beast. For a moment he just looked at it struggling with itself, then plunged the knife into it's neck. The creature made a high-pitched shrieking sound, then stopped moving all together.

Kevin sighed in relief, standing up and taking a deep breath. He didn't know what this thing was or had been, but he knew that it couldn't be the only one. There were going to be more of these things and he needed to find something better to defend himself with. For now he settled with a broken metal post he found beside the road, but it didn't look very lethal.

As he set off down the road, Kevin thought about how bleak the outlook of his journey seemed, but he still needed some answers. He walked down the road with his new weapon held in front and his feet taking slower steps than before.

The monster felt it's life drain through it's neck and as it drew it's last gasping breath, the slit in it's head acted like a mouth and said,

"Kevin, keep dreaming…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The road hugged the hillside as if for dear life, which wasn't surprising because the ravine at the edge of the road was steep and deep. The woods were long gone behind Kevin and all he could see was the endless fog sweeping the concrete in front of him. The hills were hushed as if listening to Kevin walking along his stone pathway, making a steady "tup-tup" sound as the soles of his leather shoes scuffed on the ground. He could hear his own heartbeats as they kept up their quick "thump-thump" pattern that was induced by the thoughts of another attack.

And he kept walking

"Tup-tup"

"Thump-thump"

"Tup-tup"

"Thump-thump"

Kzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

"Tup-tup"

"Thump-thump"

Kzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

"Tup-tup"

"Thump-thump"

**KZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ**

"What's that?" Kevin asked nobody in particular. He walked in the direction the noise was coming from and a shape began to form in the fog ahead. The shape was tall and looming. Kevin readied the steel stick he had found earlier in the small hope he would be able to defend himself from whatever was coming. The noise was getting very loud now, as if it was right beside him, ringing in his ears. But as he finally saw what it was that he had approached, he realised that it was a tree. A very big and scary tree, but still just a tree. The noise was still echoing around the area and Kevin couldn't find where it was coming from.

Suddenly something swung in front of him. He looked up to find the source of the noise. It was an old police radio that had been left on a static station and was hanging off a loose branch on the tree. Kevin reached up and pulled it from the branch. The radio looked dusty and in need of repair, it also didn't emit anything but static waves, which were still getting louder.

Kevin turned the radio off, but instantly wished he hadn't. Instead of static waves, he could hear the flapping of wings. Again he looked up, and now saw something a lot more scary than the tree. Hovering only a few feet above him, there was something that might have resembled a bird had it not had the head of a lizard. This "bird" was not very big compared to Kevin or the tree, but Kevin was sure that it was a much bigger threat than the tree.

The "bird" suddenly swooped down at Kevin, almost knocking him over as it passed by and glided around the tree. Kevin steadied himself and remembered that he was armed. Keeping his eye on the target he put the radio down and stood so that he wouldn't fall down so easily should it swoop down again. Which it did. He was ready this time, and when it got close enough he swung at it's head. He didn't get it's head but managed to land a good hit on one of it's wings, feeling a small amount of satisfaction as the steel resounded a small "Crack!" off the wing.

The "bird" was obviously injured and wavered noticeably as it flapped it's way away from Kevin up to the tree again. It landed with a soft "tap" on a branch high up and leered over the side, staring at Kevin like a vulture does before the it begins it's assault. Kevin stared back not as prey, but as the animal that was going to fight back.

The "bird" then leaned over from his branch. It's eyes bore into Kevin's like swords. Then it opened it's mouth. And screamed. The scream was like 1000 birds calling in anger, so piercing, horrifying and loud was it that it caused pain to Kevin. He had to cover his ears to stop the pain from driving him insane. Like fluid the bird fell from the branch and knocked the steel pole from Kevin's hand and it skidded over the side of the ravine. Kevin now only had the knife to protect himself with. His arm had cuts on it from the "bird's" attack. He swallowed his pain and whipped the knife from his pocket.

The bird circled him like the vulture, ready to make a final strike. He knew he had to stop it now lest it cause him more damage and stop him from fighting what would be coming.

The two animals looked at each other for a moment, the wind rolling by distorting the pregnant silence. Their eyes battling silently to dare the other to make the first move.

Suddenly the bird dived at Kevin at top speed. Kevin didn't move until the thing was only a few inches from his face, then he ducked below the path of the bird. Just as it passed over him he clenched on the knife and drove it into the chest of the beast. It screamed much like before, but this time it was in surprise and desperation. Kevin removed the blade and drove it in again, blood staining his hand as the bird flailed around trying to find release from it's pain. Kevin drove it in one final time and the bird stopped struggling. It twitched around on the ground sitting in a mere of it's own blood.

Kevin looked down at the bird for a moment. His attention then turned to the radio which had turned itself back on. The static was softer this time, getting quieter. Kevin picked it off of the ground and fiddled with the dials, but nothing changed. All of a sudden, the bird lifted it's head off the ground and screeched at Kevin in a last desperate attempt to attack him. The radio flared up with a burst of static matching the roar of the fiend. Kevin was now very weary of this animal's attempts to kill him and kicked it over the ravine to make sure it never bothered him again. The screech faded away to nothingness as the bird faded to the fog.

The radio stopped flaring and faded to silence.

Kevin decided to keep the radio.

He wrapped his arm in part of his shirt to stop the bleeding and carried on around the tree. After 5 minutes of walking the road started to pan out. He looked for something to show him the way around. After he walked a little bit he found what he was looking for. A sign that read:

**Silent Hill. Enjoy your stay.**

Carved into the sign just beneath that were the words:

**It's the last you'll have…**


	4. Chapter 4

-1**Chapter 4**

The sign sent a shiver into Kevin's already weak legs. He considered just turning away from the town and trying to get somebody to bring the police into this god-forsaken place, but in his heart of hearts he knew that this was his task and his alone. He took a deep breath, calmed his racing mind and focused his eyes on the road ahead.

The street he came to next was dead, in all sense of the word. All the shops were closed, no lights were on in the houses that stood to attention along the pavements and none of the street lamps were on. There was broken glass strewn across the street beside what had been a rustic antique shop called "The Living Past", but the shop was left abandoned and ransacked. Kevin went up to the broken window that the glass had come from and dared to peer around for something useful. His luck seemed to turn, although luck wasn't the word anyone would use in a situation like his. Just a few feet from the shop door was a rack of old weapons. There were some field rifles that looked like they used the old gunpowder functions, and a few close combat blades. Kevin assumed that none of the guns would be functional and he had no idea how to assemble the necessities for it, but he knew that a machete would be much better to use for defending against the monsters of the town rather than his pen-knife.

He knocked out some of the remaining glass left in the window and climbed through. The air in the shop was thick with the smell of decay, fog mixing with the dust, making it even harder to see anything past 10 feet. He looked up and down the shelves for something which would be most effective to get through the ordeals he was sure to face. Finally he decided on a short sword that he could fit on his belt and felt like it could reap a formidable attack.

He walked towards the window to continue down the street, when he suddenly realised that there was something making a humming noise quite near to him. In a panic he unsheathed the blade he had acquired and spin around to find the source. After a second of listening closely it happened that the sound was coming from the radio he had picked up. Kevin took the device from his pocket and studied it. He had not had time to look at it since his encounter with the bird. The radio had a flashing red light beside the volume/power switch and there was no visible microphone. The static was hovering on a low hiss, as if it had noticed something in the distance.

Kevin moved around the shop trying to find a place where the noise altered pitch or volume, and found that it got louder when he approached the door leading into the back of the shop. He put the radio in his jean pocket and readied his sword. Slowly he crept to the door that opened up to reveal a stock room. The radio was getting louder and scratchier as he walked through the door. At first the room looked totally normal, boxes stacked in neat piles with dust trailing along the tops from the obvious under-usage. But then he heard something over the static. Something that turned Kevin's blood to ice. There was a moan behind him that bore obvious pain. Kevin turned as quickly as his shaking legs would let him and saw something to make his mind stop.

Standing at the apposing wall was a man completely clothed in black. He wore a cloak that covered his feet and arms, but left his hands exposed. His hands were horrid scars held together by muscle tissue and pitch black skin. His face was covered by a hood that looked like the one an executioner would wear at hangings in old times. The only visible part of his face was his eyes, blood-shot and deeply darkened by what looked like insomnia.

Kevin realised that the moan hadn't come from the executioner. It had come from a man who would have been the shop owner. But the old man was impaled to the wall by an axe. He was bleeding copiously onto the floor and Kevin could see the life draining from his eyes. Suddenly the executioner tore the axe from the man and let him fall to the floor, motionless.

The executioner held the axe in both of his terrible hands and started to walk towards Kevin. Kevin forced his way through the fear and reached for his sword. His hand was shaking badly and couldn't hold the sword straight. Suddenly the executioner lunged at him, ready to strike. Kevin panicked and pointed the sword out straight. The executioner fell onto the blade and it pierced his chest straight through with a sickening squelch. His face was so close to Kevin's that he could see right into the eyes of the monster, hear it's deep, rasping breath and smell the horrible decay he had smelt when he came in. it looked at him as if he was nothing more than a slab of meat, ready to be eaten…

"You will not wake from this dream, mortal…"

Kevin looked back into the face of a nightmare, then felt sleep take him by force…

Knife……….chair………blood……….


	5. Chapter 5

-1**Chapter 5**

Kevin woke to the sound of clinking metal. His eyes flitted open and he tried to focus out of the blurred vision. He lifted his head and saw that the metallic sound was coming from a man who was eating from a plate at a table a few metres away from him. He pushed his head up from the ground with his hands and looked at where he had appeared.

His surroundings had changed completely since he was last conscious. He was no longer in the antique shop that he had fallen asleep in, but now a rather modern looking diner. But just the same as the antique shop, the place looked like it had not been used in months, years perhaps. The wallpaper was hanging on for dear life to the rectangular walls, the lights were all bust and the fans on the ceiling were broken and rusting. The counter in the diner had dust balls lying all over the place and the seats had had their edges ripped and there was foam seeping out. There was no fog in the diner like there had been in the antique shop, but he could see through the musty windows that it was drifting lazily just outside. From the looks of things the diner had not been disturbed in a fair while, except by the man at the table.

The man who was sitting at one of the booths looked like he had been there for a while too. His checked jacket was muddy and had various other stains on it. His old jeans looked like they had been through 100 fields of dirt and his wrinkly face was smeared with mud. He appeared to be eating a steak of some kind, making big chewing movements with his jaw and smacking his lips now and then.

Kevin stood up cautiously and made his way to the booth. Just before he got there he checked to see whether he still had his sword, which was sheathed in his belt. When he got to the table the old man did not look up at him, but simply kept eating. Now that Kevin was up close he could see that the steak he had seen was very badly burnt and looked like it had been sitting out for a while. He personally wouldn't have looked at it twice but the old man kept eating away.

"Excuse me…" Kevin started, but the man jumped at the sound of his voice which made him jump in turn.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you-"

"Dave? Dave, is that you? Oh thank god you're here, I was beginning to think you'd never arrive. But you're here now, that's all that matters…"

The man had put his fork and knife down, stood up and put his hand on Kevin's shoulder, shaking his head.

"You always have a knack for turning up when nobody is expecting you! We can get out of here as soon as Amanda comes back!"

"Sir, I think you've got the wrong -" Kevin started, but was interrupted by a screech that tore through the conversation like a butchers knife.

The screech had come from what he could only assume was "Amanda", at least it might have been at a different time. What he saw was truly terrible. The thing that came crashing through the front door of the diner would have vaguely resembled a woman, if it did not have the hands of a lizard. The face was a contorted mixture of horrified surprise and immense pain. Blood trickled down the left hand side of the woman's face where she seemed to have been slashed with something sharp. Her shoes had been ripped apart by what was plainly a claw sticking out from her misshapen legs, which looked like they were half way between skin and scales. A green slime covered her shirt and her arms which fell off in big blobs as she flailed her way towards Kevin and the old man

"Amanda?" Said the old man who seemed to be blind to Amanda's transfiguration. Kevin on the other hand was very aware of what was in front of him and drew his sword, but Amanda didn't want to go for him. She was transfixed on the old man, writhing in his path and screaming gibberish.

Then, she lurched at the old man and Kevin had to jump to get out of her way. When he turned around he saw that the woman had sunk her claws into the old man's chest. He was twitching with pain and shock, his face pure white and open mouthed.

"Biiiirrrrddd!!!!" said the woman, managing to screech a coherent word out at last. "There's a bird! There's a bird! It bit me Rob! **It bit me**!! **What do I do**?! **WHAT DO I DO**?!"

Rob, who had blood coming out of his mouth, said nothing, he only looked into Amanda's face as he felt his heartbeat slow to a pit - pat.

Amanda withdrew her claws, letting the Rob fall to the floor with a thump and screamed at the ceiling, sounding like a vulture. Her scream began to turn to a squawk, finally making a shriek resound throughout the diner.

She didn't let on to the fact that Kevin was present to see her painful trauma, and he thought it best that it stayed that way. He slid under the board that separated the counter from the booths and crawled to the door leading into the back. He only stood up when he was sure that she couldn't see him. He had crawled into the hallway that led to the kitchen and offices. There was a bucket of unpeeled potatoes and stacks of dirty dishes that lined the lobby. He saw the employee entrance and ran away from the reverberating yells.

He throttled the door knob but it wouldn't let him through. He could see the fog slipping through the sides of the door so he knew that the outside was only inches away, but the wooden barrier would not move. He gave in and turned back to the hall, wondering where else to go. Amanda was still yelling, but she was sounding more like a bird by the second.

He ran to the kitchen and looked around. Nothing but pots, pans, and a slab of meat that looked like the one that Rob had been eating earlier.

He then saw a set of stairs. He knew it would be easier to exit from the downstairs doors, but he didn't want to risk an encounter with Amanda. He ran full pelt up the stairs and skidded to a halt at the top. He jogged up the hallway and skimmed his eyes over the plaques on the doors he passed.

"Toilet"

"Stock"

"Manager's office"

Manager's office! Kevin knew that there would be a lock on the door there. He turned back and was about to run in, when he saw Amanda come up the stairs.

She no longer resembled a woman, but looked like a giant version of the bird he had encountered on the road. Her face was green and scaly, as was her torso and legs. Parts of her arms still looked human, but the muscles below the skin were twitching uncontrollably. She now sported a larger set of claws and a beak, from which a high pitched crowing was coming from. Kevin didn't have time, to think, because Amanda was leaping up the hall, flapping her arms madly.

He ran into the office and turned the lock. After a second of silence there was a massive thud, as if Amanda had thrown her body against the door. A few parts of the door cracked and Kevin realised that he didn't have a lot of time.

He instantly saw his way out, a window that looked over the manager's desk which was cluttered with papers and office supplies. He ran over, hearing another gigantic thud and felt splinters fall beside his feet. He picked up the chair beside him, not bothering to check how tough the window was and swung it.

The window cracked but it didn't break.

Kevin huffed and looked around to see the door almost collapse from the force of Amanda's assault. He turned back and gave a huge swing with the chair.

This time the window broke through and Kevin had his exit. He climbed on the desk to be able to reach the hole he had made, but as he stood up the door behind him smashed open and Amanda came staggering in, blood dripping from the shoulder he had used to break down the door. She saw Kevin and lunged towards him, claws wide out to strike him down.

Kevin unsheathed his sword and took a swipe at the giant bird. He managed to slice her across the chest, but the cut was only skin deep. Amanda faltered,, grabbing her chest with her claws whilst still running. She knocked into Kevin and the force sent him flying through the window.

He felt himself falling…..falling….falling…..falling into sleep.


End file.
